I am a complete, total beginner in programming, although I do have knowledge of CSS and HTML.

I would like to learn Python. I downloaded lots of source code but the amount of files and the complexity really confuses me. I don't know where to begin. Is there a particular order I should look for?

Thanks.

EDIT: Sorry guys, I forgot to mention that I already have both the online tutorial and a couple of books handy. I basically I don't quite understand how to "dismantle" and understand complex source code, in order to grasp programming techniques and concepts.

EDIT2: Thanks for the extremely quick comments, guys. I really appreciate it. This website is awesome.

Please edit the question to limit it to a specific problem with enough detail to identify an adequate answer. Avoid asking multiple distinct questions at once. See the How to Ask page for help clarifying this question. If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.

1

There is somewhat of an order. It begins with print "Hello world!".
– R. Martinho FernandesDec 6 '09 at 9:09

I would recommend you understand the basics. What are methods, classes, variables and so on. It would be important to understand the constructs you are seeing. If you don't understand those then it's just going to be a bunch of characters.

To understand source code in any language, you first need to learn the language. It's as simple as that!

Usually, reading source code (as a sole activity) will hurt your head without giving much benefit in terms of learning the underlying language. You need a structured tour through carefully chosen small source code examples, such as a book or tutorial will give you.

Check Amazon out for books and Google for tutorials, try a few. The links offered by some of the other answers would also be a great starting point.

If you don't have any experience in programming, even the simplest code might be too hard to understand. Just start reading the docs/tutorial (http://docs.python.org/tutorial/index.html) and write your own small apps. You'll get hang of it soon and will be able to understand what others created.

Maybe you have a project in mind that you want to code up? It's very hard to read what other people write, the best way to learn is to try something. Other people will have gone through the problems you will come across, and so why code is written the way it is may start to make sense. This is an excellent site to post questions, no matter how stupid you consider them.